Mortgage bankers delivered good news about commercial mortgage originations during 2010. A huge increase in the volume of commercial mortgage-backed securities led the revival — though CMBS activity was still just one-tenth of the peak level it reached three years ago.
Last year’s commercial real estate loan production climbed to $110 billion, preliminary estimates from the Mortgage Bankers Association indicated. MBA released the data as it hosts its members at its annual commercial real estate conference in San Diego.
U.S. production was up from just $82.3 billion previously reported for 2009.
Between the third and the fourth quarters, volume was 63 percent higher, the Washington, D.C.-based trade group reported. When compared to the fourth-quarter 2009 — commercial production was up 88 percent.
Leading the commercial mortgage sector higher were conduit originations, which climbed 288 percent from the third quarter. Compared to the fourth-quarter 2009 — securitized originations were 6,110 percent higher.
“A large percentage increase in originations for CMBS is likely the most symbolic change from last year,” the report said.
But CMBS activity in the latest quarter was still only 10 percent of the peak level reached in the second-quarter 2007.
Commercial bank originations doubled from the third quarter but were down a fourth from the final three months of 2009.
Originations for life insurers improved 42 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis and were 170 percent higher than the fourth quarter of the prior year.
At Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, multifamily originations were more than two-thirds better than the third quarter and nearly two-thirds more than the same period in 2009.
Washington, D.C.-based Fannie reported separately today that it financed 2,300 multifamily mortgages for $16.9 billion during 2010.
Fannie’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing accounted for 97 percent of last year’s business.
MBA said that financing for hotels showed the biggest gain for any property type from the third quarter: 330 percent. The improvement from a year earlier was 169 percent.
The largest growth from 2009’s fourth quarter was with office properties, which climbed 170 percent. Compared to the third quarter, office financings were up 76 percent.
Multifamily financing rose 37 percent from three months earlier and was 81 percent more than a year earlier. Retail property originations were 119 percent higher than the prior three-month period and 94 percent more than the last three months of 2009.
Industrial mortgage production eked out a 3 percent gain for the quarter and a 98 percent improvement over the same time during the previous year. Health care fundings tripled on a quarterly basis and edged up 4 percent on a year-over-year basis.
